How Does Apple Cider Vinegar Help You Lose Weight?

Posted by Cynthia Holzapfel | 739 Comments

Although many fad diets that create rapid weight loss have come and gone over the years, it is encouraging to note that the apple cider vinegar diet leads to gradual weight loss. It would be nice if we could shed pounds quickly and never see them again, but experience has shown that weight that leaves easily comes back easily. If you lose weight quickly, your body will oblige you by kicking in mechanisms to make it more likely this weight will slip back on in no time. But if you can be patient and do not expect instant results, your fat cells will adjust to their new size more willingly and not insist on contributing on your waistline.

When you give it some thought, it makes good sense that drinking apple cider vinegar before meals would help with weight loss. Apples are a good source of pectin, and including pectin in your diet can make you feel fuller and more satisfied. Since apple cider vinegar contains the same amount of pectin as apples (one apple has about 1.5 grams pectin), it can suppress your appetite in a similar way.

There is also good science behind why apple cider vinegar would encourage weight loss even more effectively than eating raw apples. In general, acids help with the digestion of protein, the building blocks for some of our hormones, especially growth hormone. We’ve seen how this hormone is instrumental in breaking down fat cells. By increasing the acid present in your stomach before a meal, you’ll ensure the chances for thorough digestion and increase the availability of protein for hormone synthesis.

Greater protein utilization helps the formation of growth hormone, the substance that keeps the body’s metabolism going while we’re at rest. This is why it is important to drink apple cider vinegar before or with your evening meal.

Because apple cider vinegar stimulates digestion, it also reduces the amount of time that fats remains in the digestive tract. It’s important that your body gets a chance to remove key nutrients from your food, and conditions that contribute to diarrhea can be life-threatening. But at the same time, it can be unhealthful to have food remain in the intestines for too long. If fats present longer than necessary during digestion, more fats will be absorbed.

Apple cider vinegar can improve the body’s utilization of iron, a nutrient that acts like firestarter for fuel. Iron is a key component in substances that carry oxygen to the cells and hold it there. Acids (like the acetic acid found in apple cider vinegar) help release iron in the food you eat and make it more available to be a building block for oxygen-carrying hemoglobin and oxygen-attracting myoglobin. Oxygen is as essential for burning energy in the body as it is for a fire to burn in a fireplace. It’s the ability of apple cider vinegar to increase iron utilization and energy consumption in the body that makes it such a supportive food for weight loss.

Apple cider vinegar works at the very beginning of the digestive process to stimulate your appetite and increase your interest in food. Normally, you wouldn’t think of this as being the direction you want to go in if you’re trying to lose weight. But apple cider vinegar works positively to support your efforts by increasing your interest in whole foods. Vinegar is well known as a stimulator for the taste buds. It’s the secret ingredient in ketchup, salad dressings, and other condiments that keeps you coming back for more. If your taste buds are working well, it’s easier to appreciate the wonderful, complex flavors of whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans—all foods which will help regulate your blood sugar level and improve metabolism. You won’t fall prey as easily to the tandem diet busters: salt and fat.

Apples are a great source of potassium, and likewise, apple cider vinegar, taken on a regular basis, will contribute the potassium you need to help balance the sodium in your diet. In fact, try replacing salt in your diet with apple cider vinegar. Use it to top foods you might be tempted to salt, such as vegetables or protein foods. (A little vinegar over a plate of beans is a regional favorite in many parts of America.) Salt is often present in the foods you eat as a flavor enhancer for fat. So besides increasing the amount of water weight you carry, salt can tempt you to eat more of those fatty foods—French fries, pastries, high-fat meats or meat substitutes, etc.—than you might consume otherwise.

Here is my recommendation for taking apple cider vinegar to lose weight, based on the work of Dr. Jarvis and others:

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I’m now moving into regular use of this to assist in my weight transformation / im ridding myself of 70 pounds in all / i use 2 tablespoons acv to 8 ounces water so when drinking a bottled water 16.9 ounces i add 4 tablespoons to it and i do this 3 times per day. I’m proceeding into this weight transformation journey with a positive outlook and LOTS of acv/ exercise/ and waist training to boot … yIPEEE!

That’s amazing … and for those not on the metric system, 4 kgs is about 9 pounds. Good for you, Joyce! And I hope it helped with the fibroids as well. Thanks for all the other recent comments by others, as well.

I suffer with RA and I’m hoping the taking shots of Apple cider Vinegar will help with the inflammation that goes along with it.
I’m lost as I am doing gluten free diet, low salt and sodium , also low to no sugar added in everything I eat.
I have put on 30 pound that I assume is all the medications the doctors have me taking.
Now I’m trying to get off the meds and hope the Apple cider Vinegar will help me with the pain, inflammation and lose the 30Ibs.

I have heard that wheat is something to stay away from to help lose Belly Fat.
I enjoy a few beers and am trying to find one that is wheat free part of my gluten free diet; however the calories are always higher than lets say Miller Light that I drink only because its 90 calories or less.
Any suggestions regarding a little drink here and there?

Lrn, VegKitchen doesn’t receive any advertising dollars from Bragg. This is an excerpt from a book on the health benefits of ACV. Like all weight loss plans, this works for some people but not others, and depends on consistency and other factors, but from some of the comments posted here, it seems it does work well for some people. Either way, organic raw ACV does have other health benefits and is inexpensive, so there’s not much to lose by trying.

I have the following question, I am on H202 (35% food grade), therapy for cirrhosis, I have to drink that (diluted) on an empty stomach, when do I drink the A C V in relation to the food and H202. I have a few issues, gluten allergy, corn allergy,overweight, much arthritis due to back surgery, no gallbladder, etc. H202 therapy helps all of the issues, but Apple cider vinegar is needed to restore my intestinal flora. any suggestions any one……… anxious in Montreal.

I’ve definitely heard about the benefits of apple vinegar for weight loss. Great tip at the end of making it part of your daily routine taken with water. Do you have any other organic weight suggestions you can share or write about in a future post?

was on bed rest for 8months, then had a c-section, as a result of laying down for so long I put on soo much weight, but thanks to Braggs ACV I moved from 100 kg to 70kg. Its being instrumental in my candida issues as well.

My mom recommended this to me. Her sister lost 30 pounds back in the 1950s just by drinking 2 tablespoons of vinegar with water twice a day. No diet changes or exercise. Well I started 1.5 weeks ago. Couldn’t handle the 2 tablespoons so went down to 1 tablespoon twice a day. I am down 4 pounds. Cleaned up my diet a bit but in the past when I would not have seen such a big loss. The biggest change I have seen is cravings for sugar. Its easy to say no to cake and junk. My appetite is definitely down. I started with white distilled and switched to ACV.

Rachel, a lot of people have commented on this post that ACV has been helpful in weight loss. However, we at VegKitchen aren’t qualified to say whether it will interact with your meds. Please ask your practitioner, or a qualified Registered Dietician. And good luck!

A friend of mine lost 200 pounds she weighed 400 I saw the her pictures the same day I drove to trader joes and bought 2 bottles of it. Ive been taking it for 4 days now , its very nasty but im hoping for the best and will not give up on this. Some wish me luck ladies

I wanna lose 30kg over the next 3 to 6 months. I am using Apple Cider Vinegar and a strict diet. I use raw and cooked veggies for 1week then I change to a fluid diet with veggies. I feel great and I’ve lost about 8kgs in 4weeks.

Shasha, near the end of this article, it recommends: 1 to 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar + 1 glass of water – Drink before meals 3 times a day. and of course, if you’re trying to lose weight, exercise is a must!

Hello I’ve also recently started using safari apple cider vinegar, its fermented. I take two tablespoon of it to boiled water and one tablespoon honey in it. I just started on sunday. Is this a good combination nava? Will this way help me?